
Jul 20, 2026
From research project to €1B-backed AI lab in 18 months: Prior Labs is Europe's new deeptech benchmark
SAP's acquisition of Prior Labs marks a significant milestone in the European AI landscape, showcasing a rapid transition from academic research to a €1 billion-backed AI lab within a mere 18 months.Founded in 2024, Prior Labs quickly established itself in the emerging field of tabular foundation models (TFMs), which focus on analyzing structured data like spreadsheets. The startup's swift journey began with a research paper in *Nature*, followed by a €9 million pre-seed funding round led by not









